專業叢書
Estate Planning by U.S. Trust 美國報稅與海外財產揭露（英文部分）
Chapter 1 ─ The Meaning of Inheritance
Section 1: What is Inheritance?
In Chinese, Chuan (傳) refers to the act of passing things on and Cheng (承) refers to the act of taking charge. Thus, Chuan Cheng (傳承) refers to the process by which certain assets, skills and doctrines are passed from one party to another. Before discussion about familial succession, we must first understand the concepts of family, familial wealth and their relationship.
A family is created when two or more individuals are linked by kinship, blood or emotions. A family’s wealth is composed of values, ideas, intangible assets and tangible property. While there is not a single metric by which we can measure the relative successes of transferring a family’s wealth from one generation to another, we generally consider familial wealth transfering across more than four generaions (~120 years) to be a successful Chuan Cheng(傳承).
Families often fail to pass on their wealth from one generation to the next for similar reasons. From our perspective, the most common reason for the failure to pass on familial wealth is the failure to recognize the need to plan for intergenerational wealth transitions. In prior generations, Wealth Creators have been keenly aware that their time is limited and that they must find ways to pass on their wealth before their death; however, in recent years, medical advances have made matters worse by giving Wealth Creators an often overestimated sense of security regarding their health and how much more time they have to transition their wealth.
In the early to mid-1900s, life expectancy in the U.S. hovered between 55 and 65 years old. Nowadays, due to medical advances, many live until they are 80-90 years old. As a result, while many Wealth Creators put off the transition until much later on in their lives, many have also taken the opportunity to pass on their knowledge to the next generation and their third generation. Thus, the concepts of and theories behind Chuan Cheng (傳承) have become increasingly important as transitions of wealth and knowledge is spread out on a longer time horizon and with more opportunities to plan for the future.
A family is created when two or more individuals are linked by kinship, blood or emotions. A family’s wealth is composed of values, ideas, intangible assets and tangible property. While there is not a single metric by which we can measure the relative successes of transferring a family’s wealth from one generation to another, we generally consider familial wealth transfering across more than four generaions (~120 years) to be a successful Chuan Cheng(傳承).
Families often fail to pass on their wealth from one generation to the next for similar reasons. From our perspective, the most common reason for the failure to pass on familial wealth is the failure to recognize the need to plan for intergenerational wealth transitions. In prior generations, Wealth Creators have been keenly aware that their time is limited and that they must find ways to pass on their wealth before their death; however, in recent years, medical advances have made matters worse by giving Wealth Creators an often overestimated sense of security regarding their health and how much more time they have to transition their wealth.
In the early to mid-1900s, life expectancy in the U.S. hovered between 55 and 65 years old. Nowadays, due to medical advances, many live until they are 80-90 years old. As a result, while many Wealth Creators put off the transition until much later on in their lives, many have also taken the opportunity to pass on their knowledge to the next generation and their third generation. Thus, the concepts of and theories behind Chuan Cheng (傳承) have become increasingly important as transitions of wealth and knowledge is spread out on a longer time horizon and with more opportunities to plan for the future.
